Many types of foods are packaged in discrete packages or cans and then cooked in long trays that are slowly conveyed through a heated chamber. Multiple packages are placed in each tray.
The capacity of hydrostatic cookers to process foods is generally limited by the ability to quickly and reliably load filled containers onto cooking trays on an endless flight conveyor chain which routes the containers containing the food through the cooker. Problems associated with loading and container damage are magnified when the containers must be arranged and loaded at high processing rates.
In the loading of canned foods by conventional apparatus, containers are placed along a common horizontally aligned axis end-to-end, and form a grouping for each tray, commonly referred to as a "stick". Each stick is positioned on a respective tray or flight of the endless chain which transports the containers through the various processing stages of the cooker. Typically the stick of containers is of the order of seven feet in length. The number of containers in each stick is determined by the axial length of each of the containers in the stick. The diameter range of the containers in the sticks is determined by the particular design of the ribs in the links of the cooker chain and the curvatures of the sprockets and the profiles of the chain as it is routed through the cooker.
To obtain maximum operational capacity from the hydrostatic cooker, the entire stick of containers must be assembled and loaded onto a tray or flight of the endless chain of the cooker during a time interval which is somewhat less than the amount of time required for the endless chain to travel a distance equal to the spacing between adjacent flights of the endless chain. If unsuccessful in assembling an entire stick of containers during the allowable time, the particular flight corresponding thereto will either travel empty through the cooker or will travel with less than a full stick of containers, which reduces the handling capacity of the cooker as to that particular flight. Attempts at speeding up the process of assembling a full stick in the relatively short time available have typically resulted in inefficiencies in the form of damaged, broken or jammed containers.
Therefore, a decided need exists for an improved apparatus and procedure for quickly and efficiently assembling sticks of containers in a time frame whereby full utilization of each flight of an endless chain coursing through a hydrostatic cooker can be realized, while maintaining the forward speed of the drive chain at an optimum rate to properly cook the food at a desired temperature while in the cooker.